Blended Learning Essentials – a free online course

‘Blended Learning Essentials: Getting Started’ is a free online course designed to help you understand the benefits of blended learning and how to make more effective use of technology to support your learners. It is designed to be easily accessible and is packed full of great practical ideas you can implement in your own teaching.

The ‘Getting Started’ version of the course has run several times now, with the next run starting 20th February 2017. It is being followed up by a more advanced version called ‘Embedding Practice’ which will be delivered some time during 2017.

Both are aimed at the Vocational Education and Training sector but there is plenty in the course which is directly relevant to Higher Education. It introduces a range of practices and pedagogies you can use in blended learning courses (that’s most of the courses we have in FET!) to improve your learners’ experience and attainment. You will find many free and affordable technologies in the course which can enhance teaching and learning, and the course suggests ways to make the best use of these tools.

Although it specifies 4 hours per week of study over a period of 5 weeks you can, like many free online courses, sign up and just focus on the parts you find most valuable. I’ve dipped into parts of the course myself and found it very useful indeed.